What happened in the past is that Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw set the gold standard for quarterbacks winning Super Bowls, four each, that everyone has chased since. Manning can get only halfway there if he leads the Broncos over the Seahawks on Sunday, but it would take him a long way toward being the best ever.

Montana doesn’t get caught up in the fact that most still rank him No. 1 among Super Bowl-era QBs. He also doesn’t think Manning should be downgraded among the elite just because his prolific regular-season prowess has yet to add up to multiple rings.

“Look at the guy and look at the numbers he’s thrown up there,” Montana told Sporting News. “He’s already won one, so I don’t even see why that even comes up. He’s already proven himself over and over.”

While Manning can’t catch Montana in titles, Montana is impressed with how Manning, like him, has found success with a strong second NFL team and unlike him with the Chiefs, gotten the Broncos to the Super Bowl.

Montana also points out that Manning has taken advantage of something he wasn’t allowed to do much: be his own consistent play-caller.

“I wish we had control of the offense like he does,” Montana said. “That would have been fun and made things a little easier. We always had to have a reason to change the play, and if it didn’t go well, you would get that old stare walking off the field.”

Bradshaw, already impressed that Manning set single- season passing records for yardage and touchdowns coming off major neck surgery, would elevate Manning to a new level were he to capture a second Super Bowl title.

“If he wins another one he can really climb that ladder,” Bradshaw said. “I have him around my top five, but I might put him right behind Montana.”

Future Hall of Famer Kurt Warner was the last quarterback to get to the Super Bowl with two different teams. Like Manning, Warner went 1-1 with his first team (the Rams) and he couldn’t add a ring with his second team (the Cardinals). Manning, after going 1-1 with the Colts, is vying for a different result in his third Super Bowl with the Broncos.

Warner agreed that for Manning to be mentioned in the same breath as Montana, he would need to match Elway, who won his first at Manning’s current age, 37, and get closer to Tom Brady (three) in rings.

“Big picture, if we’re talking about best quarterback to ever play this game, he probably has to have more than one to be considered in that narrative,” Warner said. “Whether it’s fair or not.”

Warner played as well as he could in three tight Super Bowls, where he could have just as easily been 3-0 or 0-3.

Peyton’s father, Archie Manning, has one son, Eli Manning, who already has two rings quarterbacking the Giants. But when you look at the brothers’ bodies of work, Peyton’s far outweighs what Eli has done overall.

If anything, Eli getting streaky with two Giants teams that wouldn’t have won without stellar defense and amazing catches plays into Peyton’s favor. Archie noted that some of the best to ever play just didn’t quite get the right breaks in Super Bowls.

“Win one or win two, we make too big a deal of it” Archie Manning said. “Consider a great player like Dan Marino didn’t win any, and with Jim Kelly, (the Bills) still went four times.

“You’re fortunate enough just to get in there, and if you have the better team you probably win. It’s football; it’s oblong and it takes some mighty funny bounces.”

For Peyton Manning to build on his resume of greatness on Sunday, he’ll need to do something only Montana has done in the Super Bowl: lead the league’s top-ranked offense over the league’s top-ranked defense.

That happened 24 years ago, over Elway’s Broncos in Super Bowl XXIV. Montana’s 49ers, with a juggernaut passing game under coach Bill Walsh, dominated Denver’s defense, 55-10. Likewise, Montana doesn’t expect Manning to be fazed much by Seattle’s top-notch secondary.

“It was more that they’ve got to figure out what they’re doing to stop us, with how much we had offensively,” Montana said. “I guarantee Peyton isn’t going to worry about it.”

If Manning’s performance against the Seahawks adds up to a win, it’s a guarantee we will keep hearing more about the “L-word”.